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Various Artists

Between Two Points

Between Two Points is the first release between 12k and LINE showcasing the audio aesthetics of each label on two separate discs. All of the tracks on this compilation are previously unreleased and represent the current and future rosters of the labels, encompassing an international selection of accomplished artists from the world of minimalist digital sound art.

disc one: the sound of 12k. Founded in 1997 by Taylor Deupree, 12k has continued to fuse music, design, technology and minimalism with releases of numerous critically acclaimed cds. Notable cds like the label defining .aiff compilation which helped usher in the new genre of microsound, or the debut and follow-up cds by Shuttle358, a newcomer who quickly became one of the most respected artists in the field. There have also been releases by artists such as Tetsu Inoue, Frank Bretschneider and Deupree himself. 12k’s aesthetic has always remained focused on ultrasynthetic sound – compositions of clicks, pops and granular textures – forming rhythmic textures and faint hues of melody. Minimal techno at its most micro.

disc two. the sound of LINE. September 2000 marked the beginning of LINE, founded by Richard Chartier as a label focusing new, digital, minimalist sound and the relationship between sound, silence and the act of listening. The artists featured on this disc explore the elements of audibility, the physical nature of timbres, the space between sounds. From the frequencies of *0, the organic textures of Steve Roden and Miki Yui, the pure subtle digitalism of Immedia, Duul-Drv, and Richard Chartier, the sparse sound events of Roel Meelkop, to Bernhard Günter’s “urban autumn ragga”, the focus of the listener unfolds layers within the understated intricacies of the works.

REVIEWS OFBetween Two Points

Representing forthcoming works in the minimal microsound genre, this compilation assembles current and future label artists on Taylor Deupree’s 12k label on a release that brings to the forefront an aesthetic of miniature blips and beeps, scratches and other background noise. The first cd features tracks from Deupree, Kim Cascone, Noto, Dan Abrams, and others. certain tracks have hints of more traditional song structures; Mikael Stavostrand’s “+” toys with techno elements and Komet’s “lag” has a dubby feel only vaguely reminiscent of Pole. Others, like Goem’s “comp tien,” further deconstruct apparent rhyhms and make no pretense about their experimental nature. The second cd highlights LINE records, which focuses on “new, digital, conceptual, ultra-minimalist sound and the relationship between sound, silence and the act of listening.” with selections from Roel Meelkop, Bernhard Günter, Immedia, *0 and others, this modern updating of the industrial genre prods for responses to small audio stimuli, a bit like listening to test tones as if they were music. still, wonder can be found in the most mundane, minute spaces, can’t it?(XLR8R, US)

While intermission and Mille Plateaux’s clicks and cuts 2 tend towards the dubbier, post-profan side of microsound’s ploink n’ click aesthetic, between two points highlights abraded ambience and sandpapery sustain. The first disc showcases the label’s more rhythmic aspects in pulse bleep contributions from Noto, Taylor Deupree and Komet, but Goem’s austere hiss and Mark Fell’s collapsing atomic models open up pockets of chaos. The second disc suggests an intruiging new direction, however, venturing into the glimmering silences previously charted by trente oiseaux. contributions from Roel Meelkop, Richard Chartier, Miki Yui et al are sequenced into a pointillist arc rendered in barely visible ink: a testament to patience, attentiveness and the discipline that is listneing.
(The Wire, UK)

In the crowded mare magnum of compilations aiming at documenting, until it’s continuing to shine, the trail of light of the microwave comet (think of the series Clicks & Cuts on Mille Plateaux and Bip-Hop Generation on Bip-Hop), an important role is certainly due to Between Two Points, at least for the knowledge and perspective of organic systematics with which the matter is being faced by the twin labels 12k and Line. The two points, which the title refers to, are exactly those on which the sound aesthetics, contiguous but carefully divergent, of the two bodies lead by Taylor Deupree and Richard Chartier take up position: granules of ultra-synthetic sound, rhythmic pointillism and faint hues of melody on one side, digital and terminally reductionist minimalism (the essence of absence?) on the other. So it’s inevitable that, among various post-digital soot, viscous chatterings, bouncings of tiny rhythmic cells and so on, you find here the general staff of microwave nomenclature in its full glory. Headed on the opposite edges by the two home-owners, there are Noto and Steve Roden, Kim Cascone and *0, Komet and Roel Meelkop, Goem and Immedia, Mikael Stavšstrand and Miki Yui beating again creaking on creaking and silence on silence, with some new names (Sogar, Duul_Drv, Vend) and a formidable autumn raga of a para-religious kind by the eldest brother Bernhard Günter to seal the whole project.
(Blow Up, IT)

A unique various artists comp profiles both the 12k label and its even-more-micro node, LINE… In this case, the line between two points is thin indeed… microscopic, even; these tiny audioworlds often seem to exist in a zone of digitized ambience or even further hidden away on an intriguingly submolecular level…The first disc (11 tracks @ 72:11) focuses on 12k, adding a few new names to its usual roster… for instance, Sogar, whose effervescent buzzes and clicks of “L1” are stirred into soft mechanical drones. Taylor Deupree’s own “Bare (Bare)” emits a strand of self-replicating chimes amid a lightly glaring sheen. Long-runner “Aftersnd_birth (in 4 parts)” (12:21) sputters, blips and resonates, arranged by Mark Fell into semi-rhythmic patterns, or just allowed to drift very quietly. Faint tempo-matching pips exist behind lovely “Grammar”‘s humming fluctuations, then set afloat a steady-state tonal plane courtesy of Dan Abrams. From some silicon rift, shifting multiplanar forms interact almost-organically, as envisioned by Kim Cascone in “Dust Theories (Sferic 1 Mix)”. Like some insectoid communication, Vend counts “1.2.3.” in wet little clicks. The second disc (8 tracks @ 56:19) enters on Roel Meelkop’s generally quiet “Liner”, which veers once from its course, into more active micronoise. “Vibra” (3:29) from our favorite female micro-artist Miki Yui, offers a short emission of machine-like essences and wispy highs. Long strands of droning resonance are underscored by steady mechanized rumblings in “Kernel Panic”(10:28) from Bernhard Günter. Beneath the faint electronic warbles etched into Steve Roden’s “Mobile Stabile” a throbbing space-engine seems to thrum. Quavery blipping/ringing tones from *0 are seperated by periods of virtual silence when “2.001K” close the comp. Other artists include: Noto, Mikael Stavostrand, Komet, 0/R, GOEM, Richard Chartier, Immedia and DUUL_DRV. Whether you find these 19 miniaturized audioscapes to be tantalizing or frustrating, Between Two Points represents the talents of this subgenre’s finest sound-sculptors. Perfect for at-the-computer headphone-listening because it makes you feel somehow more in tune with the inner workings of your machine… well, it does me, anyway. An overall 8.7.(Ambientrance, US)

Another compilation, a double one published in the States, is coming from the twin labels 12k and Line. Between Two Points sets itself exactly the target to define the different grounds of influence and sound aesthetics of the two associates, a catalogue of stylized microrhythmic textures for the releases of the former, digital reductionism in its terminal state for those of the latter. So the “microwave nomenclature” is extremely well represented, from the regular holders of the project Taylor Deupree and Richard Chartier to Noto, Roel Meelkop, *0, Steve Roden, Komet, Goem, to end with a superlative Bernhard Günter whose “Kernel Panic” gives evidence of a para-religious cultured ripeness.(Rumore, IT)

Almost at the same time [as Clicks & Cuts 2] Taylor Deupree offers another compilation on his 12K label. Or is it the LINE label? In fact it’s both. Whereas 12K stands for more rhythmic music, … LINE stands for indepth, more avant-garde electronic music. So one CD of Between Two Points is by 12K artists and one is by LINE artists (many of the featured artists will have their full length release on either label). On the 12K CD we get some of the same names as on Clicks & Cuts 2, like Mark Fell (= SND), Komet (= Frank Bretschneider), Noto (= Alva.Noto), Dan Abrams, Kim Cascone, Taylor Deupree. Some of these operate in the dance-like, clickhouse style, such as Mikeal Stavostrand and Komet. However in general there is more experimentalism, such as in the lengthy piece by Mark Fell, Dan Abrams, Kim Cascone or Goem. The Line CD goes way further on the experimental side. Music that you need to turn up your volume to. The Günter/Lopez heirs. Richard Chartier offers a well balanced cut with just high end piercing tones. Miki Yui an environmental piece of vibrations. Much to my surprise we find a track by Bernard Guenter, which is a beautiful drone piece of what sounds like processed wind instruments. Others featured here are Roel Meelkop, Steve Roden, Immedia, Duul DRV, *0 and Immedia. This compilation is much more varied then the Clicks & Cuts one, and opens not just new ways to dance music, but also to the “serious” side of things.(Vital Weekly, NL)